A Nasa expert has joined others in saying we could launch DNA to planets

Humans could colonise space by sending DNA to distant planets and ‘printing’ a new civilisation, experts claim Sending fragments of the human genome might allow people to be ‘printed’ Could solve the problem of how humans can survive interstellar travel The genome segments would be left to evolve on a distant exoplanet Or information on how to ‘print’ a human could be sent to a machine

THE 100-YEAR STARSHIP PROJECT

The 100-year Starship Project is a joint endeavour run by Darpa, Nasa, Icarus Interstellar and the Foundation for Enterprise Development.

Through the project Darpa has previously suggested that ‘printing’ humans on distant planets, like the proposal suggested here by Seltzner, is a possibility for colonising the Milky Way galaxy.

Announced in January 2012, the project has an overall goal of achieving manned interstellar travel by 2112.

To do so it is evaluating a number of different techonolgies, including ‘warping’ space time to travel great distances in short time frames at faster-than-light speeds.

The project is also considering building ‘generation ships’ that move slowly but have a self-sustainable long-term population.

To date Nasa has contributed $100,000 (£60,000) to the project and Darpa $1 million (£600,000).

The proposal would be based around one of two methods. Either bacteria carrying the human genome (strand of DNA pictured) would be sent to ‘infect’ distant planets and evolve, or a robot would be sent thousands of years in advance and then tasked with printing humans from beamed information